Monsey, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Monsey, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Monsey lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Monsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monsey — the short answer
Monsey, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Monsey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monsey's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monsey
Each reading below is measured for Monsey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonsey runs about 216 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMonsey sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Monsey is in
Monsey sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Monsey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockland County.
What Grows in Monsey
Every plant below cleared Monsey's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monsey?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Monsey
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Monsey, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Monsey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monsey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLOBAL MONTELLO GROUP #5928Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1027650Brownfields · 1200 ft
- NORRIS PONTIACBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SUNOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SHELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EASTERN AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SUPER VALUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN TACK & HDWE CO INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- VALUCLEAN CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AIRMONT DUMPSTER FIRESuperfund · 0.9 mi
- SHOCK TECHBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- O&R SPRING VALLEY OP CENTERBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monsey's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Monsey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monsey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monsey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monsey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Monsey — Superfund (41 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Monsey
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monsey average
Your land is one point inside Monsey
Everything above resolves to Monsey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Monsey Average
Monsey Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Monsey
- ●One soil character for all of Monsey
- ●Frost dates read at Monsey's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monsey's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monsey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monsey, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monsey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monsey average
How we know this about Monsey
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Monsey’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Monsey
When does frost risk typically end in Monsey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monsey typically lands around Apr 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Monsey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monsey typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monsey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monsey sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 23, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monsey?
The federal record around Monsey runs heavier than most — 1,561 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (739), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Monsey?
From about Oct 7 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monsey's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monsey's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Monsey’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Monsey's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,468 acres it covers and 1,561 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monsey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monsey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 6 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,561 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monsey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monsey's boundary and the 1,468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monsey's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Monseylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monsey's 1,468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockland County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Rockland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monsey's 1,468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monsey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,468 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Monsey-wide figureread your own land →
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